Austrian Heritage Hub
The story behind Labisan, the Austrian wellness brand founded in 1931 by chemist Andreas Labisan in a Salzburg apothecary, and continuously family owned across four generations since.
This hub indexes the heritage and archival writeups Labisan publishes, drawn from the family ledgers, wartime documents, and post-war alpine tourism records that have remained in the family across 95 years.
The founding story
- Labisan since 1931: how a Salzburg apothecary built the cold sore lip balm Austrian alpine guides still use 95 years later
- Inside the Labisan lip balm: 22 percent zinc oxide, manuka, oregano, graviola
The 1953 Mount Everest connection
Two Austrian guides on the support team that supplied the British Mount Everest expedition led by John Hunt were documented Labisan customers from the 1930s. Both carried Labisan tubes to base camp at 5,364 metres. One of the guides references the product in his personal diary from the expedition. It remains the highest documented application of Labisan to date.
Modern context
- Labisan Protective Lip Balm — the current product
- Labisan Graviola Capsules — the 2025 second SKU
- Press centre — for journalists and editors
- Research team page
Why a 95 year old Austrian brand matters
Most skincare brands you encounter were founded in the last 10 to 15 years. A handful go back 50 years. Almost none have continuous family ownership and uninterrupted Austrian manufacturing across 95 years and four generations of the same family. The brand has refused offers of acquisition by major European and US skincare conglomerates as recently as 2024. What this buys the user is a degree of formula stability that is unusual in the modern skincare market.